When are Payments for Environmental Services Beneficial to the Poor?

David Zilberman, Leslie Lipper and Nancy McCarthy
Additional contact information
Leslie Lipper: Agricultural and Development Economics Division, Food and Agriculture Organization
Nancy McCarthy: International Food Policy Research Institute, IFPRI

No 06-04, Working Papers from Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - ESA)

Abstract: The impact of payment for environmental services (PES) on poverty varies. Generally, PES is good for landowners and may negatively affect consumers if food demand is inelastic. Impacts also depend on the correlation between poverty and environmental amenities. If the richer farmers also provide the best environmental services (ES), then the poor farmers may lose. If there is negative correlation between ES and productivity, then the poorer landowners may gain from ES. The distribution of land matters. If smallholders depend on earnings from work on larger farms, then PES may affect them negatively. Program specifications also matter. Working land programs may have better distributional effects then PES for land diversion.

Keywords: Payments for environmental services; poverty; conservation; land use change; market-based mechanisms. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q0 Q15 Q24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2006
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-env
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Working Paper: When are payments for environmental services beneficial to the poor? (2006)
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